Quantitative morphological characters of the skull suggest that Akodon oenos (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae) is not a junior synonym of A. spegazzinii

PABLO JAYAT; AGUSTINA OJEDA; AGUSTINA NOVILLO; PABLO TETA ; GUILLERMO DELÍA ; RICARDO A OJEDA

MAMMALIA

WALTER DE GRUYTER & CO

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2019

0025-1461

Akodon oenos, a nominal form with type locality in northern Mendoza province, Argentina, has anintricate taxonomic history. Recently, it was considereda junior synonym of Akodon spegazzinii on the basis ofmorphological similarities of one individual captured insouthern Mendoza with specimens belonging to the typeseries of A. oenos, plus the genetic similarity of that single specimen with representatives of A. spegazzinii. Wecompared specimens of the Akodon boliviensis speciesgroup recently captured in Mendoza with the type seriesof A. oenos and series of A. spegazzinii from northwestern Argentina. We conducted an analysis of molecularmarkers (cytochrome-b gene) and quantitative morphological studies (comparisons of skull measurements). Ourresults showed that: (1) all sequenced specimens of theA. boliviensis group from Mendoza form a monophyleticclade closely related to A. spegazzinii; (2) contrary to previous hypothesis, specimens of Akodon from Mendoza aremorphologically distinctive in size and shape of the skull,from A. spegazzinii; and (3) within the A. boliviensis species group, specimens from Mendoza are distinctive. Weargue that the synonymy of A. oenos under A. spegazziniimust await further studies, including molecular markersother than mitochondrial and samples of DNA sequencesfrom topotypical specimens of A. oenos.